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Boko Haram leader Shekau resurfaces in new video, says group "safe and not flushed out of anywhere"

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau appeared in a new video on Thursday disputing a claim by the Nigerian army that the terrorist group had been uprooted from its Sambisa Forest stronghold.

In a 25-minutes video shared online, Shekau who spoke in both Hausa and Arabic, said;

"We are safe. We have not been flushed out of anywhere. And tactics and strategies cannot reveal our location except if Allah wills by his decree. You should not be telling lies to the people. If you indeed crushed us, how can you see me like this?"he quizzed.

"How many times have you killed us in your bogus death? Our aim is to establish an Islamic Caliphate and we have our own Caliphate, we are not part of Nigeria" Shekau said in the video, flanked by masked armed fighters."

The released of the video follows a statement issued by Nigerian President that the country's army has captured the Islamist militant group's last enclave in the vast northeastern Sambisa forest that was its stronghold.

Buhari said the capture of Camp Zero marked the "final crushing of Boko Haram terrorists in their last enclave in Sambisa forest", which is in northeast Nigeria's Borno state.

But the new video released will cast doubt in the minds of many as to whether the claims by the president really marks the final crushing of the militant group which in March last year pledged alligience to the Islamic State (IS) operating in Iraqi and Syria.

It is however not clear where and when the video was shot though Shekau claimed it was shot on Christmas day.